I've been thinking a lot about Tony Parker lately. It's funny how overlooked the guy is, considering he's basically won more than any other point guard in the past 15 years. He gets overlooked because he never put up massive assist numbers or only once averaged more than 20ppg.
But I think some of that is also that he was a 30mpg guy for much of his career. The Spurs, the smartest team in the league over that same stretch, consistently kept him year after year around that 32mpg mark, and then bumped it to 36mpg in the playoffs.
Just look at the numbers, especially in his prime--it's the same pattern year after year after year. No accident here.
Now go look at Chris Paul, the best point guard of his generation but with pretty well-documented playoff failing: 36mpg regular season, 38mpg in the playoffs.
I'm not sure what the right number is for Dame, but we're like the Spurs in that we've got another guy who can run the offense (Manu/CJ). There's no reason the team can't succeed with him on the bench a few minutes more.
I'd really like to see Portland move more towards the Popovich style of time management for Dame.